AHS admits mistakes on unpopular health-care policies

EDMONTON -Two of Alberta's top healthcare bosses have conceded mistakes were made implementing unpopular home care, palliative and long-term-care policies that triggered a public backlash in recent weeks.

They promised Tuesday to reverse some of those decisions, but critics are questioning whether they will go far enough to benefit affected Albertans.

Alberta Health Services chief executive Dr. Chris Eagle announced AHS is reversing a plan to replace three capital city home care co-ops with larger for-profit companies, and it is withdrawing a policy that required long-term-care patients to accept placements as far as 100 kilometres from their communities.

He also promised that AHS will "look for opportunities" to allow existing home care services for specialized and high-needs clients to continue unchanged and "to address the impact of changes to palliative home care services to ensure access and quality of care."

But Eagle was vague on whether laid-off palliative care nurses in Calgary will be rehired or whether rejected non-profit home care organizations will be awarded new contracts. He also couldn't say what the new maximum distance for long-term care placements will be, saying it could vary from region to region.

Eagle also couldn't say how much it will cost AHS to break the contracts it just signed with companies to take over delivery of services provided by the co-ops, but suggested AHS now may not receive the full $18 million in savings it expected.

"There's enough flexibility, I think, that we can make this work," Eagle said. "We're certainly not looking at terminating any contracts."

Health Minister Fred Horne was optimistic changes will be made to improve the plight of patients.

"I am confident," Horne said.

"I think today was a really good day for health care in Alberta because what happened was people at AHS looked at not just what they were trying to do in the system ... but looked specifically at how those changes are being implemented and at what some of the impact would be."

The changes come just days after Horne fired the AHS board and replaced it with an administrator, but the health minister said the reversal of earlier policies wasn't linked to the board's dismissal.

"These are decisions made by Dr. Eagle that I am pleased to see and I think they reflect the attitude of putting the patients first and a real understanding and sensitivity to some unique needs," Horne said.

Eagle said the changes to home care services, which involved contracting 13 companies to do the work of 42, should have included more consultation with affected Albertans.

"There was consultation, but I don't think the consultation was listening finely enough to the needs of individual patients and clients," Eagle told reporters at AHS offices in downtown Edmonton.

"The consultation was done with large groups and providers. I don't think it was done to the level of the people who felt most at risk in this transition.

"That's what needs to change."

Families and advocates of patients said they are hopeful a review of palliative care delivery will lead to a reversal of some of the changes and layoffs that have been announced.

Calgarian Murray Mikulak, who is caring for his dying wife, Shelagh, said that even from a fiscal conservative point of view, it makes no sense to seek cost-savings in a program that enables 400 Calgarians to die in their own homes rather than in expensive hospital beds.

"For people like my wife, where the family support network is in place to care for her at home, why would you want to do anything to jeopardize that?" he wondered.

"Why would you want to mess with that?"

But he has hope Tuesday's announcement means the planned cuts will be reconsidered.

"Clearly a note has been struck here and hopefully something positive will come from it," he said.

Calgary health-care advocate Rick Lundy said he is also optimistic AHS will now take steps to prevent patients from falling through the cracks.

"Some of the decisions that were made just don't make any sense," he said.

"People have been outraged."

NDP health critic David Eg-gen said the reversal of the decision to replace the three home-care co-ops in Edmonton was "a small victory, but a good one."

But he was skeptical eliminating the 100-kilometre policy for long-term-care placements will be much of an improvement.

"There is now going to be no policy," he said.

"We presume that could make the circle smaller, but it could make the circle bigger, too."

Wildrose critic Kerry Towle said the government finally felt the pressure from Albertans to change the "inhumane" long-term care placement policy.

"I think the stories of everyday Albertans being forced away from their communities and being forced away from their loved ones, couples being separated, was finally too much," she said.

"I'm very excited that they've seen this whole policy was wrong."

But Towle said it remains to be seen what effect the elimination of the policy will have for seniors in rural areas of Alberta.

Liberal Leader Raj Sherman said he is also pleased the government is withdrawing the 100-kilometre placement policy, but believes even 15 kilometres is too far.

He called the AHS news conference "smoke and mirrors" since even with the announced changes to restore the home care co-ops, the massive shift to for-profit companies will result in Alberta spending more money for less home care.

"Either you will have lower paid health-care providers, fewer numbers of health providers or less services," Sherman said.

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